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RAIN AND MOD AT DOWNS ! Disagreeable Weather Conditions Retard Training Operations. . Two Well Known Race Horses In Siskin and Chero Victims of Pneumonia Bluebeard Works in Deep Slop. LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 8. With rain and mud still the order, there was but little doing at Churchill Downs and Douglas Park over the week-end. Yesterday saw conditions so unfavorable that training activities approached a virtual standstill. Today found them but little improved, a light drizzle and cold wind making it most unpleasant and both tracks muddy. The long stretch of wet and cold weather has retarded the preparation of two-year-olds to such an extent that quite a few of them originally intended for racing during the Downs spring meeting probably will not be ready. Training of most of the older horses has been slowed down, but with favorable conditions from now on a majority of them should be in racing trim by opening day. Sickness claimed . the lives of two well-known racers, L. E. Komorous Siskin and Mrs. Jess Burkes Chero dying of pneumonia last night. The former died at Churchill Downs, while Chero was quartered at Douglas Park. A seven-year-old son of Epinard and Ruddy Light, by Koneywood, Siskin accomplished a fine comeback when he won eight of twenty-two engagements and ,200 last year. In his juvenile year he was an outstanding performer, winning five of ten races, including the Arlington Hyde Park Stakes, Lincoln Fields Joliet Handicap, and the Agua Caliente Futurity. His earnings as a two-year-old were 1,215. As a three, four and five-year-old he cut little figure in racing, leg and tendon ailments limiting his racing. He was bred by George R. Wing-field, master of Nevada Stock Farm, and his present owner lives in Chicagp. Chero, a three-year-old, finished in front four times last year. He was a gelding by Cherokee Engadine, by Light Brigade. William R. Coes Bluebeard was the only Kentucky Derby candidate to indulge in anything more strenuous than a gallop yesterday or today. Trainer Clyde Phillips sent the son of Blue Larkspur a slow three-quarters. According to Phillips watch, the three-year-old swished through the mud and mire in 1:19, but the professional dockers had him in five seconds slower time, the quarter in :26, half mile in :54 and five-eighths in 1:08. Chance Sun, J. E. Wideners winter book choice and which worked seven furlongs about supper time Saturday in 1:35, was out for a long gallop, as were Jouett Shouse" Weston, J. J. Flanigans Chance View and the several other less prominent candidates at the two tracks. Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees and staff of special artists and entertainers will be another attraction at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 4, which is Derby Day. The famous young maestro-singer yesterday signed to entertain clubhouse patrons between the races in the afternoon of the big event.
